2000 Tone 11
Solo CD released by Touch UK.
Back cover photo by Giuliana Stefani.
Front cover x-ray courtesy Dr. Grazia Fazio.
Design and layout by Jon Wozencroft and John Duncan.
TAP INTERNAL is beautiful and — in classical “Duncan style” — cruel, in that it puts you in contact with our deepest psyche and lays it bare, turning the auricular membrane inside out, leaving an indelible mark of new frequencies that are beautiful to abandon yourself to, but… just at the moment of hypnosis the scenario is completely convoluted and the sound becomes coarse and varied, cuts the air and tries to attack — and once more the brain is forced to change its attitude, define a new reaction to the input.
The beauty and uniqueness of John Duncan’s music is fully captured in this continuous change of situations, dynamics, sounds and emotions which is, in a word, the microscopic photography of life itself.”
— Massimo Ricci, translation by G. Stefani
Watch an electric wire and suddenly it begins to vibrate, fast, faster, until it transforms into a magnificent electronic hiss that splits, multiplies, fragments until it becomes a sea of energy that concentrates the brain cells in a continuous struggle to recognize the sound. The stimuli come from all directions, but it’s not tiring to find an acoustic balance that leaves the psyche satisfied, satiated for several minutes — suddenly interrupted and another attraction starts, with colors gray and purple at the same moment. To lose yourself in the enormous abundance, the reflections created by John Duncan’s acoustic spectrum is quite easy, just as easy as it is to again discover yourself on the main road of unheard research, always travelled by the man from Kansas: the passage of time only helps to create music that’s more stimulating and evolved.
TAP INTERNAL is obligatory listening for anyone who follows the cutting edge of the avantguarde, where the sound itself dictates the way it’s molded in the few hands (John among them) able to guide it.
— Massimo Ricci, Deep Listenings 18, Spring 2000
Photo © Giuliana Stefani 
Shortly after the release of SEND, a new CD by one of the most interesting composers working in what some call ‘extreme’ or ‘industrial’ music. Duncan works primarily with shortwave sounds intermixed with field recordings. This concept is continued on this new CD. Take for instance the piece with radio sounds (layered shortwave) that slowly transform into the screaming of a dying pig. Duncan’s music is not there to please you, but to tell you a rather unsettling story. This is some of the most intense music I have come across.
— Frans de Waard, VITAL
Für seine zweite Veröffentlichung für Touch (nach SEND) ist John Duncan einmal mehr in die (Un)Tiefen der menschlichen Psyche eingedrungen und positioniert die Koordinaten von “the beauty of sound” und “human evil” in einem bisher unerforschten Gebiet. Ähnlich wie z.B. auf THE CRACKLING geht Duncan der Frage nach, was der “sound of energy” sein könnte. Innerhalb des 46-Minuten-Stücks lassen sich mehrere Einheiten erkennen, die erst im Gesamtzusammenhang in einander fließen, weil die Sub-Parts durch schlichte Cuts getrennt sind. Diese Teile verweisen auf die unterschiedlichen innerkorporalen Regionen, von denen der modifizierte Herzschlag, der tap internal, der beruhigendste und gleichzeitig unterschwelligste ist. Vor zu lautem Hören sei gewarnt: Rhythmus-Angleichungen zwischen Herz- und Hertzfrequenz könnten nicht nur zufällig sein. Wieder mal heavy listening in high quality.
Heinrich Deisl; skug – 45, 05-03-2001